Scholars learn about the Hero's Journey as they read Ray Bradbury's "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh." They analyze the story's structure and narrative techniques. Finally, they write summaries of the text's central idea and use their...

Young scholars will plan a paragraph that states their opinion and cites evidence to justify their opinion about an informational text. This lesson uses biographies since students can easily be able to write down factual information from...

This tutorial explains point of view in informational texts. Students will learn how to analyze multiple accounts of the same topic or event and identify similarities and differences in different points of view.

Two PowerPoint presentations and a video [2:57] on comparing and contrasting literary and informational texts as well as how to write a literary analysis. Includes links to external resources.

Want to improve your students' reading skills? This is a good place to find the types of directed activities, using a definition text, reconstruction/analysis activities, and advantages of using DARTs.

As young writers become more skilled through the Writers Workshop lessons, they can begin working to become more skilled with non-fiction writing. A series of mini-lessons, graphic organizers, and samples of student work are all provided.

[Free Registration/Login Required] Students will learn to compare and contrast texts about life cycles using a Venn diagram. Then, using the Venn diagram, students will write an expository paragraph including an introductory sentence,...

After giving students the writing topic "A Special Day that I Remember, give students ten to fifteen minutes to write on the topic. Then tell them they will be revising their "Special Day" prompt writing, but first they will listen to...

Students can use this writing idea from the book Wacky We-Search Reports by Barry Lane to demonstrate understanding in any content area. Students use the idea of writing "I will not " sentences to show their knowledge of various...

A professor's excellent explanation of how to write a professional sounding essay. Covers all aspects of an essay, and detailed examples give information on exactly how to write the essay.

This resource from Kim's Korner for Teacher Talk defines various patterns of text organization and provides a brief essay example of each pattern.

Using a famous quote from Maya Angelou as inspiration, students learn and practice writing informative essay related to hisotric events.

[Free Registration/Login Required] A series of three lesson plans designed to teach students to identify main ideas through headings and chapter titles, and then to write appropriate titles of their own. Lessons are based on the books...

Translated into Spanish, this graphic organizer can be used by student to collect facts about a topic. Students will collect information but record the "gold standard" of facts only.

Lesson which provides three types of reports for early elementary students to share. These allow young students to see themselves as writers with something useful to contribute from an early age.

In this lesson plan, the book If You Give a Moose a Muffin, written by Laura Numeroff, is used as a mentor text for word choice. The content focus of the lesson is to teach the students to take ownership of scientific and descriptive...

The goal of this activity is for students to learn how to tell a story in order to make a complex topic (such as global warming or ozone holes) easier for a reader to grasp. Students realize that the narrative impulse underlies even...

In this lesson plan, students will be able to gather information from provided resources to answer a question. Using the book "Owls", the teacher will read the book while asking guiding questions. After the book, the students will have...

Students read picture books, complete science worksheets, and draw illustrations to show their understanding of the life cycle of frogs.

Students research animals and their skeletons and write informational text to share the information. The text is accompanied by digital images found online, and students' pages are combined into a class book.

This Center for Urban Education resource provides a downloadable graphic organizer for students to use when analyzing the evidence that authors use to support a claim. RI.9-10.5 ideas/claims developed. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.8

Information that can be read or listened to that discusses two methods of how to write effective summaries as well as how to avoid plagiarism when summarizing informational texts. Finally, examples of literary summaries are provided....

[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] This lesson focuses on the introduction which establishes the context for the information that will form the body of the essay, connecting the conclusion to the introduction,...

Students gather research, complete field observations, and work with a local arborist to create a field guide to local flora. Information includes illustrations, descriptions, identifying characteristics, and more.